-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A Mississippi schoolteacher was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for shooting and stabbing to death her lover 's pregnant fiancee in 2006 .

Carla Hughes met the victim 's fiance at the middle school where she was a teacher .

The same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of two counts of murder Tuesday for the death of Avis Banks spared her life , declining to impose the death penalty .

Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives .

Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest asked the panel of nine women and three men to sentence Hughes to death based on the gruesome nature of Banks ' murder .

Banks , 27 , was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29 , 2006 , in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Keyon Pittman , the father of her unborn child . She was five months pregnant .

She had been shot four times in the leg , chest and head , and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying , according to medical testimony .

Prosecutors alleged that Hughes killed Banks so she could have Pittman , a colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson , to herself .

`` She took Avis Banks ' life and the life of her unborn child because she wanted that life , '' the prosecutor said .

The jury deliberated Wednesday for about an hour to decide on the sentence after hearing emotional testimony from seven defense witnesses , including her parents .

`` Carla has been a kind , loving person all her life , '' said Carl Hughes , who adopted his daughter when she was 6 weeks old .

`` I 'm not asking you , I 'm pleading with you , to spare my daughter 's life , '' said Hughes , who is also a teacher .

He said that the person portrayed by prosecutors as a cold-blooded killer was completely different from the accomplished honors student , equestrian and beauty pageant contestant that he knew and loved .

Hughes ' pastor and friends also took the stand to describe her work mentoring youths , volunteering at church and at the school where she met the victim 's husband .

Suspicion initially fell on Pittman , who admitted to having an affair with Hughes , a language arts teacher . A key prosecution witness , Pittman told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant . He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes ' home and even went out of town together , but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex .

Throughout the trial , defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman , portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood .

Prosecutors alleged the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime . The defendant 's cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Banks ' death . Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Banks ' body to the gun , which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police .

None of Banks ' relatives testified at the sentencing . Instead , the jury heard from a forensic pathologist , who described the nature of Banks ' injuries .

Madison County Deputy District Attorney John Emfinger urged the jury to look past Hughes ' prior achievements and focus on the crime in rendering its sentence .

`` In my mind , this overshadows everything else she 's done in life . She took the lives of two people in that garage , '' he said in his closing argument Wednesday .

`` When that door opened , -LRB- Avis Banks -RRB- was not met by a beauty pageant winner , she was not met by a member of the mayor 's youth council , she was not met by a peacemaker . ... She was met by a stone-cold killer , '' he said .

In Session 's Jean Casarez contributed to this report .

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Same jury that convicted Carla Hughes of murder declines to impose death penalty

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Prosecutors said gruesome nature of crime warranted death sentence

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Avis Banks was five months pregnant when she was shot , stabbed multiple times

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Prosecutors alleged Hughes killed rival so she could be with Keyon Pittman